


Just A Few Days

by amczingphil



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Domestic Phan, Florida, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Playlist Live, Slow Burn, Swearing, TEMPORARY Hiatus, it is dan guys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-06 05:04:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11029215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amczingphil/pseuds/amczingphil
Summary: Dan wasn't intending to join the Lester family holiday in Florida but somehow when Phil asked him to his mind went blank and he agreed. Not that it was a huge deal because he only said that he would join for a few days.Go to Playlist, have just a few days in the sun with the Lesters and then go home, it was a good plan.





	1. Mario and Suitcases

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: this is a work of *fiction* based upon dan and phil's two week holiday. 
> 
> also this is going to be another long one so strap yourselves in

“You should join us,” Phil had said that morning, a few weeks ago, completely unaware that he had singlehandedly brought on what would be the craziest, most revealing two weeks of Dan’s life so far.

“I don't know, wouldn't it be a bit weird for your friend to tag along on your family holiday?” Dan had asked him.

“Of course not, you're part of my family too,” Phil had said, “plus, I know for a fact that my mum absolutely adores you, probably even more than me.”

“That's a load of crap and you know it,” Dan said, trying to use the blasé statement to hide the fact that he was overcome that Phil classed him as family, of course Dan had always considered Phil to be his family but to hear that the feeling was mutual meant more to him than he could voice.

“Just promise me that you’ll think about it?” Phil requested and Dan just nodded silently.

It wouldn't do him any harm to consider joining the annual Lester family holiday, in fact, if he did decide to go then it would probably be a lot of fun and he wouldn't be sitting home alone. He could even just join for a few days, that way he would have fun but he wouldn't be intruding as much because he would leave within the first week. That was a good plan, if he decided to go that was.

“Dan,” Phil whined, stretching out the vowel in his name as he prodded at his arm, “that doesn't count, you need to say it out loud.”

“Ok, ok, I promise that I will consider joining your family’s holiday in Florida,” Dan said, “there, are you happy now?”

“Thrilled. You've promised so you have to actually think about it.” Phil said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dan muttered mostly to himself. Just because he had agreed to consider joining the holiday didn't mean that he had to actually say ‘yes’ to going.

* * *

 

 

It had been a last-minute decision, like most of Dan’s plans were. Phil had been packing his suitcase with extra everything while Dan lounged on his front across his colourful bedspread playing Mario Kart on Phil’s Nintendo and complained about the lack of characters.

“It's ridiculous,” he had whined, “you're good at this game, you should have unlocked everything, why don't you have any good characters?”

“You do know that it doesn't matter who you play as?” Phil asked him as he shoved a handful of odd socks into one of the corners of his case, pressing down to try and wedge them in to create more space, “I mean, essentially they're all the same, they just look different and have a different aesthetic.”

“Oh, catch you talking about aesthetics,” Dan said, glancing up briefly from the screen, “anyway, it's not about them being different or the same, it's about the fact that I want to drive around as Bones.”

“Of course you do,” Phil said, “you know, you could just walk across the hall and grab your own game cartridge.”

“Too much effort, it's not worth it.” Dan said.

“Or, better yet, you could go finish off your packing,” Phil suggested.

“Ugh,” Dan groaned as he rolled onto his back, holding the game high above his head and maintaining his position in first place, “that's even more effort.”

“Dan, we leave in the morning,” Phil reminded him as though Dan hadn't been thinking about it himself for the past week, “have you even decided whether you're joining the holiday yet?”

“I'm thinking about it.” Dan said, followed by a soft curse as someone hit him with a blue shell, they were the worst things on the planet and completely unfair to whoever was in first place.

“If you don't want to come, you don't have to,” Phil said softly, “nobody will be offended you know?”

“That's not the problem here,” Dan admitted.

“Then what is the problem?” Phil asked, his brows furrowed in confusion obviously unable to see any other reason why Dan would be unsure about joining them.

“The problem is that it's your family holiday,” Dan said.

“So?” Phil asked, and Dan wanted to smack himself in the face with the Nintendo.

“So, I’ll be intruding,” Dan said.

“Of course you won't, I told you this weeks ago,” Phil reminded him, “my family love you, they'd be thrilled if you came along. Plus, Cornelia’s coming too.”

“That's different, she's Martyn's girlfriend.” Dan said in a tone that implied that Phil was drastically missing the point.

“So?” Phil asked, “I really don't see why this is such a huge deal to you, Dan.”

“Of course you don't,” Dan muttered to himself.

“What's that meant to mean?” Phil asked.

“Nothing, just forget it.” Dan said, watching the little Peach on the screen dance about and celebrate her victory. It was a bittersweet victory for Dan because now all he could think about was the fact that Phil was probably mad at him.

How could he explain that he wasn't Phil’s family’s family without sounding like a dick? Sure, Phil was his family, Dan had never been surer of anything in his life, and he was perfectly aware that Phil classed him as family. The problem was that it was easy enough for a family to let their son’s friend stay over for a few nights, or to tell him he was like family, but to actually mean it and to want that friend to join a fortnight family holiday abroad was a whole other matter.

That was just touching the surface of the problem, what was worse was that Dan wasn't sure how their viewers would react if they found out that Dan was on holiday with the Lester clan and he wasn't so keen on discovering their reactions either.

There would be a huge proportion of their viewers who would go crazy and fun the holiday as ‘phan proof’ and that was worrying to Dan. Not because he didn't like being shipped with Phil, no it really didn't bother him at all, but because he was worried about Phil’s reaction to it. What if he found it to be too much and regreted inviting Dan?

It was unlikely, of course, but it was still a risk that Dan wasn't sure that he wanted to take.

“Which shirt is best for mini golf?” Phil asked, momentarily changing the subject as he held up his green butterfly shirt and his blue button up with the white spots.

“I’ll have to say the button up seen as you made me put on my moth shirt for the last ‘golf with friends’ video.” Dan said.

“Hmm, true,” Phil said with a shrug as he rolled the shirt up into a rough ball and shoved it into the case.

“Your method of packing physically pains me,” Dan admitted.

“Good, because your inability to make a basic decision without thinking through every potential future outcome physically pains me,” Phil retorted, getting back to the topic that was bothering them both.

“That's not fair,” Dan said.

“Neither is you thinking that my family don't want you to join our holiday,” Phil said, “do you really have that little faith in them? Do you really think they'd lie to you?”

“Of course not, Phil.” Dan promised.

“Then why won't you just give us an answer?”

Us. Did that mean that Phil’s family was also waiting to find out what Dan’s decision was? Of course they were, Dan reminded himself, they’d invited him so naturally they'd be waiting on his reply. It was a wonder that they hadn't just cast him off as a lost cause by now, perhaps they knew him a tad too well and were aware that Dan liked to leave important decisions until the last possible moment.

“I’ll come,” Dan said finally, breaking the silence that had settled over the room. He hadn’t intended to say that, he was going to turn down the offer but as he glanced at Phil his mind seemed to almost short out and blank and he couldn’t clearly remember why he was so against the idea of a holiday. It would be fun.

“Really?” Phil asked with a dubious glance towards his friend, clearly unable to determine whether or not he should believe him.

“Really,” Dan affirmed, “I’ll come for a few days.”

“Well then, I definitely know for a fact that you need to get packing,” Phil said as he crumpled up a pair of jeans and shoved them into his case.

“Nah, I have plenty of time to pack.” Dan said as he started a new round on Mario.

“Dan, it’s literally 11pm, we have to leave here at 5am tomorrow,” Phil reminded him, “I’m packing right now and even I know that I’ve left it too late.”

“I’m a pro at packing last minute,” Dan said nonchalantly.

“The last time you said that to me I ended up pouring all sorts of lotions and potions into your eye after you’d gotten tipsy filming an internet support group video and sprayed deodorant in your eye.” Phil said.

“I’m not going to be packing tipsy this time.” Dan reminded Phil.

“Go pack, Dan, and go to bed,” Phil said, “I’m not dealing with you being half asleep all the way to the airport.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dan asked as he shot a red shell straight into Yoshi, “I’m a delight to travel with.”

“No, you’re not, not when you're tired,” Phil corrected him, “you turn into an immovable lug when you’re tired. Constantly snoozing on everything and always half asleep whenever I need you to get moving.”

“I’m not that bad,” Dan protested.

“Yeah, you are,” Phil said.

“Alright, maybe I get a little bit uncooperative when I’m tired,” Dan conceded.

“A little bit?” Phil asked. “Dan, I practically had to manhandle you out of the cab and into the airport last time.”

Dan snorted he could remember that all too well, Phil was completely right. He had had to practically drag Dan out of the cab and support him so that he didn’t faceplant the floor. He had just been tired but Dan was pretty sure that the entirety of the airport’s staff thought that he was on some kind of illicit drug.

Thankfully Phil had some sort of magic way with words and managed to convince the security that Dan was just a nervous flier. Dan was always suspicious of the ease with which Phil managed to breeze his way through airport security. In fact, he often suspected that Phil knew some sort of secret handshake that would allow him to pass through to any country. It was weird and Dan had vowed to keep a watchful eye on Phil the next time they went to the airport.

If Phil had a secret handshake then Dan wanted to know because there was no way he was going to continue to suffer through awkward encounters with a high possibility of probing when there was an alternative.

“Alright, maybe you're right,” Dan muttered, “but I still have plenty of time to pack.”

“Well don't come running to me for socks when you realise that you forgot to pack your own because you were in too much of a rush.” Phil said.

“I wouldn't want your socks anyway,” Dan said, his voice sounding petty, it was a lie and they both knew it. Dan always ended up stealing some of Phil’s socks because he never packed enough of his own.

It was just how they were. Phil would lend Dan socks and Dan would make sure that he packed extra sun lotion because Phil would always go through his bottle in the first few days. It was just their routine, and sure, Dan could probably pack extra socks and Phil could buy more sun lotion, but that wasn't how they did things.

“Do you have your Playlist notes in there?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, they're at the bottom,” Phil said, “it's a bit daunting though.”

“I know what you mean,” Dan said.

“It doesn't matter that we've been in front of massive crowds before, I'm still a bit anxious about the whole thing.” Phil admitted.

“People are probably going to expect us to be used to this,” Dan agreed.

“I don't think having people screaming for you is something that you ever get used to.” Phil murmured.

“I hope not,” Dan said, “because I feel as though anyone who is used to that feeling doesn’t really appreciate how fortunate they are to actually be in such an amazing position.”

“Plus, it’s really scary, how can people not be terrified of having people screaming at them?” Phil asked.

“I don’t even know,” Dan said, “there’s something inherently terrifying about having thousands of people screaming at you.”

“True, throughout the entirety of tatinof I remember fighting the urge to just sprint off the stage and hide in a dark corner.” Phil said.

“Me too, although maybe not the dark corner part, way to sound like a creeper, Phil.” Dan snickered.

“Shut up, you're the creeper.” Phil retorted.

“Wow, nice comeback,” Dan said.

“I’ll comeback to your mum.” Phil said as he picked up a wad of phone chargers all tangled up within one another and shoved them inside the case.

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Dan said.

“What doesn’t make sense is the fact that you still haven’t started packing yet,” Phil said.

“Ugh, what are you? My mum?” Dan asked.

“Oh god, I hope not.” Phil muttered so quietly that Dan almost missed it.

Dan bit back a smirk, the thought of Phil being his mum was so hilariously impossible. It was not only impossible but it was also completely ridiculous for reasons that Dan wasn’t entirely able to voice. It was a bizarre feeling.

“Dan,” Phil said louder, the whine in his voice stretching out Dan’s name to an almost ridiculous length.

“What?” Dan asked, mockingly copying his tone.

“Go and pack, I swear you’re going to have me up all night stressing out about you forgetting to pack something.” Phil said.

“As long as I have my Playlist notes, a shit ton of phone chargers and my wallet then I’ll be absolutely fine.” Dan said, his attention remaining on the Nintendo as he coasted along in first place.

“You can’t just buy yourself a new wardrobe every time we go somewhere, Dan, you need to start planning ahead, I mean you need a few weeks’ worth of clothes.” Phil said.

“Hey, that’s not true, I’m only joining the holiday for a few days, I only need to bring about a week’s worth of clothes,” Dan corrected him.

“Right, of course,” Phil said in a tone that implied he didn’t quite believe what Dan was saying, “Hey, I’ll tell you what, I’m just about all done packing here so why don’t you go start your packing and I’ll order pizza.”

Dan considered it for a moment, he was hungry, they had been in the city through the day and had had a late lunch at around three o’clock so now that he was actually thinking about it, he could eat. At the same time, he was tempted to say no, it was blatant bribery on Phil’s part. Would it be too petty to say no? Probably, plus now that Phil had mentioned it, Dan really wanted pizza.

“Mighty Meaty from Dominos?” Dan asked.

“Isn’t that what you always get?” Phil asked rhetorically and Dan glanced away from his screen for long enough to see Phil rolling his eyes. “I was going to order that for you anyway.”

“Shut up, you Spoon,” Dan mumbled, “I was just reminding you”

“Uh huh, go pack.” Phil said and as he stood up he threw a quilted blanket over Dan’s head.

“Hey!” Dan yelled as he fought with the blanket, it was bigger than he expected and by the time he finally found his way out of the blanket’s grip he noticed that he had crashed into the barrier of the track and was sitting in a pretty crap last place.  He flipped the Nintendo shut with a huff of defeat. “You're an arse, Phil.”

“Pack.”

Dan grumbled to himself as he clumsily clambered off Phil’s bed and made his way into his bedroom. Most of his clothes were lying in a heap on the floor as he was still working out where he was going to put things in his new room. His suitcase was lying open on his bed and it was painfully empty.

“Notes, notes, notes,” he muttered to himself as he raked through his bedside drawers and tried to find where he had dumped them last.

Unfortunately, planning a trip to America so soon after moving flats wasn’t their most practical idea, but they just couldn’t bear the thought of letting people down by missing Playlist.

Dan finally found them wedged underneath his new bed, crumpled and slightly torn but still usable. He threw them in his case first, at least that way Phil couldn’t get annoyed with him for forgetting them.

His method of packing was completely different from Phil’s. Where Phil preferred to roll his clothes up into balls or scrunch them up as small as possible, Dan liked his clothes to be neatly folded and packed into the case as though he was playing tetris. He tried to fit as much as possible into the smallest space.

Not that anyone would think that if they looked at the way Dan’s clothes were heaped on the floor in his bedroom.

“Hey, here you go,” Phil said from the doorway.

Dan looked over to see Phil standing with a pile of folded shirts off of the clotheshorse. It was obvious to Dan that Phil had tried hard to fold them neatly and so even though he really wanted to, he didn’t refold them, instead he placed them in the case and gave Phil a grateful smile.

“Pizza is going to be about half an hour,” Phil informed him, “I’ll give you a hand to pack up until it gets here.”

“You don’t have to,” Dan said, “I’m the one who left it this late, you shouldn’t have to suffer with me.”

“I would say ‘let this be a lesson for next time’ but I think that you and I both know that it would be pretty pointless.” Phil said.

“Did you come in here to help me or sass me?” Dan asked as he launched a pair of balled up black socks towards Phil’s head.

They missed.

“To help and to annoy.” Phil answered.

“At least you're honest I guess.” Dan said as he neatly placed his socks into the case. He was prepared this time, he had just enough pairs to last him the length of Playlist and a few days holiday with Phil and his family.

“You wouldn’t have me any other way and you know it.” Phil said.

“I don’t know, sometimes I’d rather have you quiet.”

“Liar,” Phil said, “I’m a delight to be around.”

“Bullshit,” Dan said with a sharp snort of amusement, “you’ve got everyone thinking you’re an angel and you’re actually a devil.”

“A devil? How can I be a devil? I thought that the point was that there is only one devil, so does that make me the devil or just a demon?”

“You’ve just proved my point,” Dan said, “do you think that our viewers would believe me if I told them you’re a pedantic bastard?”

“Of course not, that’s obviously a lie, I’m an angel.” Phil said with a smirk.

“Sure thing, angel boy, are you finished raking through my underwear drawer?” Dan asked.

“What? I’m not in your underwear drawer.” Phil insisted. “You don’t even have an underwear drawer yet, everything is scattered on your floor.”

“I know, but the look on your face was just brilliant, I wish I had been filming that.” Dan said.

“And you called me the devil, I think we both know that that’s actually you, Daniel.” Phil said.

“Oh, whacking out the Daniel are we?”

“Don’t ever say whacking out the Daniel ever again please,” Phil said.

“Noted.” Dan said, wrinkling up his nose as he considered that the sentence was pretty much a euphemism. It was usually Dan who was telling Phil to never repeat a certain statement or phrase ever again.

“When are your parents flying out?” Dan asked after a comfortable few moments of silent packing.

“A few days after us, Martyn and Cornelia are going to fly out at the same time as us but they’re flying from Glasgow Airport because it’s slightly closer and it’s technically a shorter flight.”

“That makes sense,” Dan said, “I’m dreading this flight.”

“Me too, but at least we’ll get to catch up on some of the movies that we’ve missed.” Phil suggested.

“True, we have missed out on a lot,” Dan said, “we've just been so busy lately with the move and everything that it's been impossible to actually sit down and have a movie weekend like we used to.”

“I feel so deprived of Doritos,” Phil said.

“And salty popcorn,” Dan added.

“On our first weekend back home we are definitely having a movie weekend. No work, no checking emails, phones must be on silent and we are going to be fully stocked with all the Chilli Heatwave Doritos and salty popcorn that we can buy.”

“That sounds like an amazing plan,” Dan said.

“We almost definitely going to end up falling asleep through half of the movies,” Phil said, “because we're going to be completely jet lagged.”

“That's even better, you don't want to be busy or  have to go outside when you feel like shit,” Dan said.

“You have a point there,” Phil said, “but we can't watch any films that we’re genuinely excited for because I'll be annoyed at myself for falling asleep if I actually want to know what happens.”

“You’re such a nerd,” Dan muttered.

“You're just as much of a nerd as I am,” Phil said, “anyway, you agreed to come on holiday with me so I can’t be that terrible.”

“I didn’t say yes for you,” Dan said teasingly, “I said it because me and your mum get along great, we’re going to drink cocktails together and go shopping.”

“You’re joking but is it weird that I can see you doing exactly that?” Phil asked.

“Honestly, probably but I can totally see where you're coming from, I think your mum would have some great fashion advice,” Dan said, “well, in any case, it would have to be better than yours.”

“Hey, that’s not fair, I’ve made some great fashion decisions in the past,” Phil argued.

“Well damn, that must have been when your age was in the single digits,” Dan said.

Phil childishly stuck his tongue out at Dan, before glancing at his suitcase to check what they were still missing.

“Dan, you have to pack more than two pairs of jeans.” Phil said.

“Why? I’m only going to be away a few days, probably less than a week in fact, two pairs of jeans will be plenty.”

“No, it won’t besides, the temperature in Orlando is going to be a killer,” Phil reminded him, “you should through in a couple of pairs of shorts too otherwise you're going to melt.”

“It’s called ‘suffering for my aesthetic’ and the pain will be worth it,” Dan said.

“I’ll make sure you’re in pain if you cut our time at Playlist short because you’ve gone and gotten heatstroke.” Phil promised.

“So violent,” Dan muttered, “besides, you’re the palest so if anyone is going to end up with heatstroke then it’s probably going to be you.”

“Keep believing that, you’ve spent a lot of time indoors lately, you're not as tanned as you’d like to think anymore.”

“I still have more of a tan than you do,” Dan said, trying to ignore how blatantly true Phil’s statement was. He really didn’t go outside as much as he used to.

“Just pack some shorts, you’re not stealing mine.” Phil said.

“Right, fine, I’ll pack one pair, and one pair only.” Dan said.

“One pair is better than none, I guess.”

The doorbell rang, a loud, shrill noise that Dan still wasn’t used to and to be completely honest he preferred the sound of their old bell.

“Good timing, I think I’m almost done,” Dan said, “I pretty much only need toiletries and all my paperwork.”

So ten minutes later Dan found himself sitting in their new snuggie and moaning suggestively as he bit into a hot slice of pizza, he completely missed the way that Phil glanced at him when he made those noises. Instead his mind was focused on the fact that he was taking an impromptu holiday with Phil’s family.

He had dropped hints to the internet that it was a possibility that he was considering back when Phil had first asked him, but the truth was that he had never intended to accept. Yet, he had. Somehow when Phil had looked at him as he was preparing himself to say no for the final time, his mind had gone blank and he had decided that he would join.

Their viewers were going to go insane were going to go insane when they found out, Dan could already see the theories and speculations popping up all over Tumblr, but somehow he couldn’t really bring himself to care.

They were friends, what did it matter if they went on holiday together? Friends went on holiday together all the time and this would be no different.  

“Hey Phil?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to be so tired when we go to get our plane tomorrow.”


	2. Cabs and Customs

“Dan, come on,” a voice slowly infiltrated Dan’s awareness pulling him out of his comfortable dream, “your alarm has been ringing for ten minutes.”

Dan reluctantly opened his eyes to see a still half-asleep Phil standing over him holding the phone that was still blasting out an annoying, overly happy tune to try and rouse Dan from his sleep. Dan was instantly regretting setting that as his ring tone to get him out of his bed as it was currently making him want to grab the phone and fling it across the room.

Phil didn’t look much better than Dan felt. His glasses were sitting slightly wonky on his nose and he was peering through them with barely open eyes. It was a pretty amusing sight, and the fact that his hair was practically defying gravity with the way that it was standing up in a quiff just added to the humour of the situation.

“Would you please just press the cancel button on that alarm?” Dan asked, burying his head back into his pillow to try and escape from the annoying sound.

“I’ll cancel it as soon as you leave your bed,” Phil said, “otherwise you and I both know that you're just going to roll over and go back to sleep.”

Dan muttered a muffled curse into his pillow before pushing himself up into a half sitting position.

“I hate it when you're right,” he said.

“I know you do,” Phil said placatingly, “now come on, make a move.”

“Why did we book such an early flight?” Dan asked as he swung his legs out of the bed, thanking every deity out there when Phil finally cancelled the alarm.

“Come on, you can even have first shower if you get up right now,” Phil said.

Phil must have been desperate to get him out of bed as usually it was a competition for first shower. It wasn’t so bad in their new flat as there was a shower and a bath in separate ooms, which Dan had been thrilled about as it meant that he could begin to explore the world of Lush bath bombs without having Phil knocking on the door asking him how long he was going to be because he needed a shower. Unfortunately, it didn’t always make things easier, especially today, because baths took ages.

“What’s the catch?” Dan asked.

“No catch, you just have to hurry up,” Phil said, “Do you have your passport, visa, and tickets ready?”

“Yeah, they’re on top of my case,” Dan said as he struggled his way out of his bed feeling the weight of tiredness trying to drag him back against his pillows. It was almost overwhelmingly tempting to just crawl back under the covers and forget all about the holiday and Playlist.

“I’ll put them with mine,” Phil said, “also the kettle is boiling so you might want to hurry up otherwise your coffee will be cold by the time you’re done showering.”

Dan smiled at the insinuation that Phil was going to make him coffee while Dan showered. It was just a habit by now for them, if one of them fancied a cup of tea or coffee then they would automatically just grab two cups instead of one. They had done it countless times and it was just natural for them. Dan would often surprise Phil with a coffee when he was two hours into editing his new video and Phil would return the favour by popping in with a cup of tea for Dan when he was lying on the floor trying to plan out his next YouTube video.

“Come on, hurry,” Phil promoted again.

Twenty minutes later Dan found himself sitting in the lounge sipping a lukewarm coffee as a bead of water dripped off a curl of hair and made its way down his face, making it itch.

He could hear Phil singing under the sound of the spraying water and he smiled a little, this was going to be a good holiday. They would go to playlist, meet some of their viewers, do what they had to do on the stage and then they would be free to enjoy the sun and just relax.

The water shut off and Dan heard Phil humming to himself in the bathroom.

“Phil, the taxi is in fifteen minutes, come on.” Dan called and the bathroom door clicked open.

“I wouldn’t have taken so long if you hadn’t taken twenty years yourself.” Phil retorted.

“You’d be ready to go if you didn’t insist on drying and straightening your hair,” Dan said.

“That’s ironic,” Phil said, “go back a few months and I would’ve called you a hypocrite. You were practically the poster boy for hair straighteners before you ‘embraced the curls’.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Whatever gave you that impression, Daniel?” Phil asked, putting an emphasis on Dan’s name.

“You’re a dork,” Dan said, rolling his eyes as a hairdryer started up.

“Sorry, can’t hear you.” Phil shouted above the noise.

Dan rolled his eyes and hauled himself off the sofa, the daylight was beginning to filter in from outside helping him to actually start to feel more awake. He made his way to Phil’s room; the door was open so he didn’t bother to knock.

That was a rule that they had in their house; closed doors always meant knock first. It wasn’t so bad in their new place but sometimes they just needed their own space. In the old flat, they only really had their bedrooms, the office or the lounge to spend time in and that had been alright, but they shared the office and lounge so there wasn’t always the chance to just spend time alone.

Whereas in their new place they had so much more space, there was the office, the lounge, the snuggie, and their bedrooms and even though they were shared, it was still more space for them.

They were best friends, and honestly, they loved each other and classed each other as their family, but that didn’t mean that they never argued. Living in such close proximity and spending almost all their time together meant that there was the occasional argument and that they would bicker like an old married couple sometimes, but they always managed to resolve it in the end.

Which was why it was so important to them to make sure that there were ground rules. If one of them closed a door, then the other one wouldn’t go in without knocking. It was a good system, it worked for them.

The hairdryer clicked off.

“Chop, chop,” Dan said, snickering when he saw Phil jump in shock.

“We have plenty of time,” Phil lied, looking at the time on his phone.

“Our taxi is less that ten minutes away.” Dan said.

“Alright, I guess the hair straighteners are a no go.” Phil said, wrapping the cable around them and shoving them into the case.

“It’s not like you really need them,” Dan said.

It was true, Phil’s hair was mostly straight anyway except for the ever so slight wave that it had. Before Dan had decided to accept his curls and learn to live with them, he had always been insanely jealous of how Phil’s hair could look good without even him even trying. He used to look at how it caught the light in and made it look almost blue in certain places. It had been a running joke amongst their viewers that whenever Phil had gone to get a haircut, Dan had followed in his footsteps within a few days.

They had always been right, not that Dan would ever admit it. He had tried to copy Phil’s haircuts, in fact one time he actually took a creepshot of Phil so that he would have an example to show his hair dresser rather than unsuccessfully trying to explain what he wanted.

It was easier now that they had their hairdresser come to the house and now that Dan was happy with his curls and wasn’t constantly trying to copy Phil’s hair.  It would have been awkward for Dan to tell their hairdresser that he wanted Phil’s haircut when Phil was in the room.

Dan’s phone buzzed with an incoming text.

“Our taxi is pulling up,” he told Phil after glancing at the screen.

“Really? Damn,” Phil muttered as he hopped dangerously and tried to pull on his shoes causing Dan to worry that he might topple over. Phil wasn’t the most co-ordinated guy as it was so the chances of an accident occurring were actually surprisingly high.

“Grab our passports and stuff,” Dan said, “I’ll get the cases.”

There was a sudden flurry of activity in the flat, Dan was grabbing all their luggage and trying to make sure that he had it all and hadn’t forgotten something whilst Phil sprinted around and made sure that he had everything that they would need in order to safely enter the United States.

“Did you make sure to turn all the plugs off?” Phil asked as they locked the front door.

“Of course, I know how anal you are about that.” Dan muttered, Phil was a nightmare, he wouldn’t even leave their place for one night unless all of the plug sockets had been switched off, except the fridge freezer of course.

“You worry too,” Phil said defensively.

“Yeah, I worry a little, but I’m not the one who makes plans to go back home to turn off the actual plugs.” Dan said.   

“Well. I’m sorry that I actually want our flat to be there when we go home,” Phil said.

Phil had been, of course, absolutely right about Dan being so tired that he practically passed out. There was no way that he was ever going to last.

He hadn't intended to fall asleep of course, but as soon as the taxi started moving there was something about the combination of the gentle lull of driving and the pitter patter of raindrops hitting the windows that just made his eyes droop. The rain was gentle and slow, almost lazy and one moment Dan was watching the drops travel down the window, placing a mental bet on which one would reach the bottom first, like he had as a child, the next moment the water was all blurring together into an ocean on the window and finally into darkness.

If Dan had been awake then he would have seen Phil’s knowing little smirk and eye roll, as though he was practically gloating about the fact that he had been right.

There was a loud bang as Dan stotted his head off the window as the taxi drove over one of the speedbumps in the airport parking lot.

“Huh?”

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Phil muttered.

“Where are we?” Dan asked, his words slightly slurred by sleep.

“Just arriving at the airport,” Phil said quietly, “you might want to try and look a little more awake unless you want to be pulled aside for a random search.

“I’m awake,” Dan said, his voice sounding more like a breath than actually words, Phil glanced over and saw that his eyes had already slipped closed again and his breath was steaming up the window from where he was leaning against it.

“No, you’re not,” Phil said as he prodded Dan’s shoulder, “and I’m not carrying you through an airport so open your eyes.”

“They’re open,” Dan said.

“I’m wearing my glasses, Dan, I’m not blind,” Phil said, “I can see that your eyes are closed.”

“Stop poking me,” Dan said.

“No, open your eyes,”

“Fine,” Dan said, his voice thick with irritation as he squeezed his eyes shut before finally wrenching them open.  

“I’m awake,” Dan said.

“Good, keep it that way until we’re on the plane,” Phil said, “you can sleep all you want once we’re actually on board.”

“Alright, I’m holding you to that.” Dan said, pushing himself away from the window so that he was actually sitting upright rather than slumped to the side against the window.

Fortunately, Dan found that he was able to fool the airport staff into thinking that he was a calm, respectable human. In no time at all he found himself sitting in a seat beside Phil on the giant plane.

Dan wasn’t a fan of planes, between the chances of it crashing into the sea and the way his knees were always uncomfortably pressed up against the chair in front of him, he just found them plain awful. That wasn’t even mentioning the crappy food and how, for some reason, airports always expected people to spread frozen butter on frozen bread and be happy about it.

The only part of the journey that Dan actually enjoyed was the movies, Phil always brought a set of earphones with him so that they could plug them in and take one earbud each and watch the movie together. It was almost like watching a movie together back at home, except they were sitting on uncomfortable chairs, getting cramp in their legs and gnawing on frozen bread.

“So, Martyn and Cornelia were thinking that maybe we should all take a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral,” Phil said.

“Really?” Dan asked, “that would be fun, I love space centres.”

“Yeah, it’ll be good, and I can finally get another NASA mug, I’ve heard that they have shiny ones.” Phil said.

“Of course, you want the shiny one,” Dan said with an eyeroll, “I swear that if you were a bird then you would be a magpie.”

”I’d be happy with that.” Phil agreed.

They continued to watch the movie in peace, every now and then they would occasionally pause it to chat about something related to their holiday or playlist or even just a random thought that had popped into one of their minds.

Dan should have known it wouldn’t last. Throughout the entire journey, everything had run smoothly, even their changeover flight had been fine. He should have been more suspicious at the ease with which they made it to America.

There was always something inherently terrifying about the US Customs and as soon as Dan set foot in the place he felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck. It was the single raindrop before the downpour as within minutes Dan realised that he was a sweaty, disgusting mess.

His hair which had been curly already was now a fuzzy ball of frizz and sweat and Dan was secretly hoping for nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. He didn't want to get probed but he started to think about every bad thing he had ever done, like the time that he stole a mint from his grandma’s bag when he was much younger, or when he had pressed the panic alarm at work that one time.

That wasn't even taking into account all the times that he had lied for the sake of it because he was too lazy to actually explain the truth, he had done so many shitty things and they were going to know about them all and try to probe him.

“I'm warning you now,” he said to Phil, “if they so much as mention probing in my vicinity then I'm getting on a plane home.”

“Dan, we go through this every time we come to an airport,” Phil said with exaggerated patience, “you're not going to get probed, you've done nothing wrong.”

“Not right now, but what if they know about the things I did when I was younger? I hid my dad’s car keys once because I wanted him to stay home from work.” Dan confessed, his eyes wide and sweat continuing to pour down his face.

“Dan, you need to calm down, these people don't care about that, they care about what kind of person you are,” Phil said, “and I'm not going to lie, the way that you’re sweating insanely is kinda suspicious.”

“I can’t help it,” Dan said in a hushed whisper as they neared the front of the queue.

Dan’s eyes widened fractionally when he saw who was waiting for them. On one side was a sweet looking, mother-type woman, she looked like she baked cookies on the weekends for her children and sent birthday cards to her friends a month in advance so that she could be sure that it would arrive in time. However, on the other side was a terrifying looking guy, he was tall and bald and looked as though he could snap Dan in two.

“Look, I'm going to be a good friend here and let you go first,” Dan said quickly.

“No way, I’m going to the mum, you can have the nightclub bouncer,” Phil said.

“Not happening,” Dan said, “the bouncer is all yours.”

“Well alright, but only because the passport recognition machine-thing didn't recognise you as human and I feel as though he would probably make you cry, plus I actually want to go on this holiday.” Phil said as he finally conceded.

Dan cringed at the memory of the event that had occurred only a short while ago. The woman who was behind the screens had offered him some tissues to dry his face because the machine was unable to pick him up with so much moisture on his face. It had been hugely embarrassing for Dan but Phil, of course, had found the entire ordeal hilarious. Dan was aware that he would never live this down and that Phil was probably itching to tell his family about everything as soon as they met up.

So, Dan was just hoping for the rest of the journey to run as smoothly as possible so that he could enjoy their holiday.

When had it become their holiday and not Phil’s family holiday in his mind?

“Next,” the stern looking man called out and Phil gave a deeply suffering sigh before moving forward.

Dan watched in an almost fascinated confusion as Phil breezed through customs. He walked up to the stern guy with an easy grin, just like he always did when he was meeting someone new. Mr. Stern Guy seemed to change before Dan’s eyes and he was also smiling and chatting away to Phil.

Before Dan knew it, Phil’s passport was stamped and he was granted entry into the country, he wasn't sure what shenanigans Phil had pulled, but all Dan was aware of was the friendly handshake between the two of them and then Phil’s back as he disappeared to wait for their luggage.

After seeing the ease with which Phil cleared customs Dan was feeling pretty optimistic as he was called forward by the mum.

“Alright, next,” she called as she aggressively typed out something on the computer in front of her.

“Hello,” Dan said, the anxiety making the words come out a little louder than he had originally intended.

“Huh,” she muttered glancing over him with a look of disdain, “so, what do you do for a living?”

Dan felt his heart sink, in fact it almost hit the floor with an audible thump.

Explaining his job to people who had no idea what exactly being a YouTuber entailed was always difficult and usually ended in them assuming that he was an online porn star.

“Um, I uh, make YouTube content?” He said, the words sounding like more of a question than a statement.    

“Isn’t YouTube that place with the cat videos?” She asked, peering at Dan over the top of her glasses.

“It’s actually a bit more than that now,” Dan tried to explain as sweat continued to drip down his back and he felt extremely conscious that he probably had a giant sweat patch on his back.

“What kind of videos?” She asked and Dan could see his heart that had been lying by his feet suddenly break through the floor and plummet down a hundred metres or so.

“Uh, comedy, I guess.” Dan said, people laughed at him, it was kinda the same as them laughing with him, right? He could totally be classed as a comedian, he was funny, even in his mind that sounded overly defensive.

“A comedian? Oh, tell be a joke,” she said as she fixed her glasses and stared at Dan intensely, and that was it. Dan’s heart finished it’s decent straight into hell.

“Wha-What?” Dan stuttered, and for a moment he considered telling her a story from one of his ‘reasons why Dan’s a fail’ series before deciding that that would most likely make the situation worse, “well, not really a joke comedian, I’m more of a person that shares his thoughts and opinions or tells funny stories about things that have gone wrong in my life.”

“Ah,” she lowered her glasses again to peer over the top of them at Dan and he wished that she would stop it with shifting the damn things and just wear contacts instead, if Phil was able to wear contacts then she would be too, “that sounds kind of sad.”

Well, Dan couldn’t really argue with that now, could he?  

It wasn’t like she was wrong, there were a lot of things about Dan’s life that could be considered sad and now that the forty something year old customs officer was mentioning it, he wasn’t really in a position to argue with her.

It was alright though, she had gone straight in for the kill so all he had to do was keep his cool and he would be done soon enough.

“So, it says here that you're only at this convention for three days,” she said reading through his paperwork.

“Yeah, but my friend is having a little family holiday after so I figured I could stay for a few days and do some work over the internet.” Dan said, crossing his fingers behind his back and hoping that the woman would just cut him some slack for once.

“Well you can’t do that,” she said, “if you’re coming in on a professional visa, you can only stay for as long as you’re working. Three days.”

This was Dan’s opportunity to try and convince her to just let him stay, she had all the power here and she knew it. So, if he could just try and make her see some sense then he would be fine, he just had to tell her that the other customs officer had been more lenient with Phil and maybe she would see sense and realise that Dan would be going home. He wasn’t trying to sneak into America to stay there forever.

“Ok, but my friend just got let through by that guy over there and he’s in the exact same situation as me, so isn’t it just up to you to let me stay?” he asked, not realising what a stupid thing it was that he had just said.

“Are you questioning my authority?” She asked, removing her glasses altogether and pinning Dan with a beady glare that made him genuinely afraid that he was about to turned away and told to go back to the UK.

“What? No, no, no, I’m just saying-”

“Because if you want me to get my supervisor, he can take you back and you can explain this to him, and you can point out your friend and I’ll drag him back there too.” She threatened.

“No, no, no, that won’t be necessary.” Dan insisted, and despite the fact that he was pretty frustrated and wanted to argue his case so that the woman would consider letting him stay for the few extra days, he was also concerned that being taken into the back to talk to the supervisor was another term that she used for probing. Dan really wasn’t in the mood to be probed but a strange guy today.

“But, if I can only stay in the country for three days then what am I supposed to do about this holiday that I’m tagging along to or my flight home?” Dan asked.

“You can’t do anything, if you want to be a tourist, you have to leave the United States and come back as a tourist.” She said, leaving no room for argument.

What did that mean? Was Dan going to have to fly back to the UK, or Mexico or Canada, and then get on another plane straight back to the US? That was long, expensive and pretty pointless, there wouldn’t really be any point in returning for the few days holiday that he was planning on joining.

“So, what should I do?” Dan asked, hoping that the woman’s unhelpful attitude would lapse for a few moments, just long enough to let her actually give Dan some constructive advice or tips. Surely, she must deal with this sort of situation every day and she should know the easiest way to deal with it.

“Take a day trip to the Bahamas,” she said as though it wasn’t a big deal, and reached out to hand Dan’s passport and visa back to him.

“What?” Dan asked, he was sure that he must have misheard her somehow.

“It’s a one hour flight from Orlando to the Bahamas, you can do it in one afternoon, bye,” she said effectively ending the conversation and dismissing him, she looked passed him though he wasn’t even there anymore, “next!”

Dan wasn’t sure how he was still walking to be honest, he felt shaky and as though he had just been picked up by a short forty-year-old PTA mum and thrown off a tall cliff.

“Are you alright?” Phil asked as soon as he found him.

“She wouldn’t let me stay.” Dan said quietly.

“What?” She wouldn’t let me stay,” he repeated, “and you need to get away from me because she was threatening to come and find you too.”

“She can’t do that, I’ve already been allowed into the country, I’m pretty sure that she can’t revoke that, right?” Phil said.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think that it’s worth risking it.” Dan said, looking around anxiously as though he was expecting the scary lady to appear and physically drag them back to the room where they would get probed and their entry into the country would be revoked.

“Uh, alright,” Phil said looking mildly spooked, “why don’t you go wait outside and I’ll grab our cases and meet you there after?”

“By the main doors?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, just make sure you’ve turned the volume on your phone up just in case I can’t find you.” Phil reminded him.

“I know, I know, this isn’t the first convention we’ve been to, Phil.” Dan muttered.

“Doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop worrying,” Phil said.

“Of course, you’re not,” Dan said rolling his eyes.

Phil was a notorious worrier, he was the kind of person who would hold ‘ticket checks’ which was a brief moment where they would have to stop whatever it was that they were doing so that Phil could ensure that they still had their tickets and hadn’t just happened to lose them during their journey.

It was irritating sometimes but Dan usually just rolled his eyes and waiting while Phil checked for the tickets and was able to set his worries aside.

Dan walked out of the airport looking incredibly suspicious as he was trying to hide his face in case the scary customs lady was chasing him. He had visions of her chasing after him waving a probe in the air with one hand while shifting her glasses about on her nose with the other.

The image made him actually laugh out loud to himself, drawing a concerned look from a stranger who seemed to be questioning whether he was insane or not. He tried to give the guy a reassuring smile but that only resulted in him giving Dan a wide berth and pulling out his phone as though getting ready to call for help.

It occurred to Dan that being the pale, traumatised mess that he currently was while laughing to himself was probably not the best way to convince anyone of his sanity.

Dan somehow managed to forget that he wasn’t in the UK anymore and as he made his way outside he was hoping for a cool breeze to help dry the sweat and refresh him a little bit before he could get to their hotel for a shower. Instead he was met by the humid heat of Orlando and he muttered a curse to himself.

They were going to be getting a cab to their hotel but judging by the state Dan was in, no taxi driver in their right mind would be willing to stop for them.

“I got our stuff,” a familiar voice said from beside Dan about fifteen minutes later, “and I got you these.”

A packet of wet wipes was handed to Dan by a highly amused Phil and if Dan wasn’t in agreement that he really did need them then he would have thrown them back to Phil.

“Thanks,” he said.

“No problem, I didn’t just buy them for your sake though, I have to walk around with you so I at least need you to look semi-approachable.” Phil teased.

“Hey, that’s mean,” Dan said, “you weren’t there, she was absolutely terrifying.”

“That’s what you get.” Phil said with a large grin that made Dan want to poke him.

“What did I do to deserve that?” Dan asked.

“Well, you were so insistent on me going first to the scary looking guy so it’s only natural that he ended up being the nice guy and the kind looking lady ended up being the evil one.” Phil said.

“It was terrifying, I was ready for her to climb over the desk and attack me right there and then in front of everyone,” Dan said, “and honestly, I don’t think anyone would have tried to stop her, she was way too scary.”

“So, what are we going to do?” Phil asked.

“About what?”

“About the fact that she said that you can only stay for three days,” Phil explained.

“Well, I think I’m going to take a day trip to the Bahamas.” Dan said.

“The Bahamas?”

“That’s what she said, I have to leave the United States and return as a tourist and apparently the easiest way to do that is to take a day trip to the Bahamas.” Dan explained.

“Seriously?” Phil asked.

“Yeah, a one hour flight each way,” Dan said, “I could do it on the last day of Playlist and hopefully make it back in time for all the celebrations.” Dan said with a shrug.

“One things for sure,” Phil said with a laugh, “it’s never boring travelling with you, Dan.”

Finding a driver that was willing to take them wasn’t as difficult as Dan had imagined it would be, in fact the first driver that arrived was willing to take them to the hotel. It hadn’t been easy and Phil was sure that the driver was about to make up an excuse as to why he couldn’t drive them where they needed to go.

Fortunately, he was either drawing a blank as far as excuses came or he genuinely needed the money from the job because after a long moment of silence that nearly had Dan wandering off he shrugged and opened the passenger door.

“Get in,” he said.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked it :D obviously i based the conversation between dan and the customs wifey off of the bahamas vide :') the next chapter will be about playlist and starting to sow the seeds of the fact that there may be more than friendship between them
> 
> come chat to me on tumblr @asteroidphil!!  
> also drop a comment and let me know what you thought.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think :) i'm going for a more realistic vibe with this fic so i hope you like it!!
> 
> also you can come chat to me on tumblr @asteroidphil


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